Sightings

Main sighting: Comic tern

Seen by Chris Stone. 2 commic tern, 75 redshank, c16 knot, 24 turnstone, common sandpiper, whimbrel, wheatear, little egret and adult Mediterranean gull

Main sighting: Duck

Mallard 180, Shelduck 148, Shoveler 42, Pintail 38, Teal 8, Redshank 150, Dunlin 20, Blackwit 5, Knot 1, Lapwing 16, Lgrt 2. At Sluice Farm: 1 Wheatear and movement of white butterflies west into westerly breeze, 30 Goldfinch. At St Brides (via M.L) : 200 Knot, 80 Oyster Catchers, Common Sandpiper, several Wheatear.

Main sighting: Otters & geese

Just had to interrupt this morning’s WeBS survey to watch the antics of 4 otters – they’re no good at keeping a lookout so I had brilliant close views. A massive 677 Canada Geese (probably an undercount) and 30+ Greylag (rare here) flew down the valley. Otherwise quiet with just one Green Sandpiper and only 1-2 Goosander. Much of the river was obscured by dense vegetation.

Main sighting: Osprey

Single bird at a regular stop off point seen fishing by a reliable source last month . Theory is at least three separate individuals use this route through Monmouthshire each year and this confirms it . Bird was present for 3 days before flying south. Also a single Hobby also headed south late in the day at the same location .

Main sighting: Waders and Ducks

Nev has summarised most of it. Pre-dawn visit there was 300+ ducks – mainly Teal on Priors in front of the Snipe Platform. Hard to get close to as they fly off as soon as they see anyone enter the platform. Good to see some waders today – there was a small flock of Black Tailed Godwits and Knots early on they took off at first light. Later nice flock of Knots were on Priors but got scared off by a Peregrine. The Ruffs are showing really well. Lots of small birds – Wheatears on sea wall and hedges were full of warblers.

Main sighting: Avocet and passerines

Dawn to mid-morning highlights: 1200+ swallows migrating through with 30 sand martins and at least 150 house martins. 2 kingfishers by the little bridge near the entrance, 3 greenshanks feeding together, teal numbers have rocketed to 270, 3 herons on the lagoons with a group of 10 that drifted over quite high (had us all thinking they were cranes at first), 77 ringed plovers with a similar number of dunlin, 9 lt egrets, 11 curlew, 1 buzzard, 2 snipe, 1 cettis calling, 1 avocet was an unexpected surprise, 41 lapwing, 1 yellow wagtail, pair of kestrels, 1 wheatear (3 more on seawall), green woodpecker yaffling, 4 ruff feeding together, the glossy ibis came in from the saltings then headed straight off in the direction of Magor Marsh, 161 knot with several dunlin mixed in, black swan female sparrowhawk and what appeared to be a hybrid shoveler x mallard, 4 gadwall and 6 shoveler. Migration was well under way with overhead 1 siskin, 51 skylarks and 77 meadow pipits. Along the hedgerow leading to the seawall was 11 chiffchaffs, 2 willow warblers, 2 wood warblers, 1 spotted flycatcher with blue and great tits, goldfinches, chaffinches and robins mixed in. Awesome morning. Other: several red admirals, 1 painted lady, numerous migrant hawkers and smaller numbers of common darters.

Main sighting: Lapland Bunting

Last seen dropping in to saltmarsh at 6.15 100m west of pill. Found by Nick Saunders.

Main sighting: Osprey

Big (probably female ) Osprey heading south adj. To Monmouth showground over meadowes where the Monnow meets the Wye ..at 11.39 today

Main sighting: Waders

High tide visit this evening. More waders this evening showing well on Monks Lagoon from first hide. 300c Dunlin, 200c Ringed Plover, 3 x Turnstone, 1 x Greenshank , 150c Black Headed Gulls, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk took either Dunlin or R.Plover . Darker form of Buzzard on posts near Becs Lagoon.May have seen a Stint? but hard to tell in poor light so keep your eyes out next high tide.

Main sighting: Further sighting

The glossy ibis flew in at dusk and prior to this when we were scanning though the wader flock, there was a good candidate for the semi, but the light was not the best to confirm unfortunately.

Main sighting: Passerines

Evening visit highlights – 4 whaetear, 4 whinchat and a male stonechat on the fence line from hide 1 – the wheatears were dropping down into the long grass to catch craneflies, 32 swallows, adult stock dove, teal numbers now at 56, 9 shoveler, 205 dunlin with 97 ringed plovers and 3 turnstone mixed in, 27 lapwing, 3 lt egrets, 1 heron, 3 ruff feeding together (from snipe), black swan, 1 chiffchaff (contact call), female kestrel hunting, 34 oystercatchers (on the saltings), greenshank and 2 snipe from hide 3 with 77 black-headed gulls, 1 buzzard, 2 house martins and back at hide 1 a female sparrowhawk came through and took out a dunlin and proceeded to fly over the hide and behind the hedgerow. Other: small copper, 4 migrant (not southern as stated on Saturday) hawkers and 1 painted lady.

Main sighting: Dippers

Dippers very active on the rhymney river to-day,counted 7 Also green woodpeckers flying around.